Booth Library
Eastern Illinois University

Scholarly articles:
Credentialed experts write scholarly articles. The articles will use complex language and terminology specific to the field of study. Scholarly articles are generally long and have charts, graphs or tables. Almost all scholarly articles will begin with an abstract that gives a summary of the article. Scholarly articles will always cite sources and have a bibliography at the end.

Peer reviewed/Refereed articles:
These are scholarly articles that have been reviewed by a panel of respected experts in the field and deemed to be of high quality. Peer reviewed journals will almost always describe the review process for the journal in the first few pages of the journal.

Think about your search topic and try to express it in a few words. Also try to think of alternate terms that mean the same thing. For example, if you are looking for "how girls feel about their bodies," you should try to reduce the idea to as few words as possible. You might try the words "body image girls." You might also need similar terms like "self image, young women, females, or self esteem."

Click the "Magazines, Journals and More" link on the Booth Library home page to access article databases. Under "General Article Indexes," you will find the two databases listed below. These databases offer full text articles and you may limit your search results to scholarly articles.

• InfoTrac Expanded Academic Index ASAP: This full-text database covers journals in all areas from 1980 to present.
       To limit your results to refereed articles, check the "refereed publications" box.
  
  
• EBSCO Academic Search Elite: Offers full text for over 1,530 journals.
       To limit to peer-reviewed articles, check the "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals" box.

Always be sure to cite your sources when writing a research paper. Citation style guides are available at the Reference Desk, located on the 3000 level.

• You should cite your source any time you use another person's idea, opinion, or theory.
• Any fact or statistic that is not common knowledge should be cited.
• Graphs, drawings, and photographs should be cited.
• Quotations and paraphrased quotes should be cited.

Need More Help?

The reference desk at Booth Library is always staffed during library hours. The phone number is 581-6072. If you need more help, please call and a librarian will be happy to assist you!